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Last chance for say on lake levels

A dock along Owen Sound Bay comes up short in receding water levels in this June 2013 picture. But levels are up 37 centimetres over this time last year. Upcoming public meetings will discuss concerns that higher water levels are a blip.

Anyone concerned about local Great Lakes water levels has one last chance to comment on whether attempts should be made to raise lake levels and how to do it.
An International Joint Commission public consultation tour wraps up Tuesday with the final in a series of consultations in Upper Great Lakes communities. It will take place at Collingwood’s Cranberry Resort at 1 p.m.
The International Upper Great Lakes Study Group has concluded the St. Clair River is not getting deeper and there is no need to recommend remedial work be undertaken to staunch the outflows of the upper lakes, despite ongoing concerns by Ontario Sierra Club.
The study group, in its latest report up for consultation, is focusing on outflows from Lake Superior, which feeds the Huron/Georgian Bay/Michigan basin.
The Sierra Club still recommends investigation of the placement of “speed bumps” in the St. Clair River to slow the outflow, which would allow water levels to rise in the Lake Huron/Georgian Bay/Michigan basin, its website says. It is calling for an environmental impact study on this option and has disputed the degree of damaging impacts if water levels are increased.
The study group was established by the IJC, which is responsible for the Boundary Waters Treaty, a water quality and quantity dispute resolution process. It initially made no recommendations to correct the outflow problem, citing other more important factors including weather patterns.
But with an identified problem before it, the IJC directed the study group to broaden its mandate to look at options to deal with the St. Clair and Detroit River outflows.
This final consultation meeting Tuesday concerns IGSU’s new report, Lake Superior Regulation: Addressing Uncertainty in Upper Great Lakes Water Levels.
It recommends creating a new management plan for regulating outflows from Lake Superior, which feeds the Huron/Georgian Bay/Michigan basin; studying closer the impact of climate change on water levels; and planning for how to respond to extreme fluctuations in water levels, a summary of the report at www.ijc.org/iuglsreport/ says.
It also recommends “the feasibility and implications of restoring water levels in lakes Michigan-Huron and multilake regulation and its impacts throughout the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system,” a news release about the report says.
“We are asking people who live on the Great Lakes to tell us if the study board‚Äôs recommendations for managing water supplies on the Upper Great Lakes meet their needs or if other changes need be considered,” Joe Comuzzi, chair of the IJC‚Äôs Canadian Section, the release quotes him saying.
“Commissioners will carefully consider all concerns regarding the regulation of water levels in the Great Lakes before arriving at a decision that balances and suitably protects the interests of all,” said Lana Pollack, chair of the IJC‚Äôs U.S. Section, the release quotes her saying.
The lakes rise and fall, but over the past 100 years overall they have gone down. The study group identified about 23 centimetres of difference between 1963 and 2006, which they needed to address.
It was determined that 7-14 centimetres of the drop was due to an increase in the conveyance capacity of the St. Clair River, 9-17 cm of the drop was due to climate factors and another 4-5 cm was due to shifts in the earth’s crust as it has shifted after retreat of the glaciers of the last ice age. Something major did happen in the mid-1980s to increase the capacity of the St. Clair River, but exactly what was undetermined, the study group has concluded.¬†¬†
Written comments to the IJC may be submitted by Aug. 31 to the International Joint Commission,
234 Laurier Ave. W., 22nd Floor Ottawa, ON K1P 6K6 Fax: 613-993-5583, or e-mail the IJC at commission@ottawa.ijc.org .